


don't hold your breath for me

by barmaid



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22876117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barmaid/pseuds/barmaid
Summary: When Chikage is twenty-six and Itaru is twenty-four, their life begins.(Featuring post-marriage commentary.)
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Utsuki Chikage
Comments: 6
Kudos: 119





	don't hold your breath for me

**Author's Note:**

> its my birthday and i get to post all the self indulgent chikaita i want

When Chikage turns sixteen, he celebrates his birthday with a back-alley scramble that he toes the edge of death in. He’s old enough that he’s densensitised himself to this by now, but young enough that he still wishes to the stars that it didn’t have to be like this.

Chikage is also young enough to remember his last birthday party, turning ten and feeling on top of the world. At ten, he’s too young to realize that his mom should be in his life and that most children his age don’t have to go to the hospital to see their parents. Chikage still has toy soldiers and beaten-up tennis shoes and broken crayons, he still has his grandfather draw dashes on the doorframe to track his height, and he still has…

…

Itaru turns fourteen the same day the new KniRoun game comes out. He’s old enough now that he knows this is something he has to keep to himself, but young enough that he still rambles to nobody on late night screen recordings.

At fourteen, Itaru is still shorter than most of the girls in his class and he still shoots spitballs across the room. Itaru is on top of the world, as any teenager going through a rebellious phase is, and he still finds himself needing to get away.

…

Their thirties seem to treat both of them well, but there’s a lot more to their story.

…

When Chikage is twenty-three and Itaru is twenty-one, they meet for the first time. A roundtable meeting isn’t the best place for conversation, and neither of them are particularly interested in the other, so they share a brief handshake and don’t speak a word. Itaru continues to stay isolated in his cubicle while he grinds for his best girl with the volume muted, and Chikage continues to slink off to… wherever Chikage goes. 

(Even after all these years, Itaru doesn’t know the full extent of what Chikage’s been through. They’ve known each other long enough for him to feel okay asking, but he’s considerate enough to let Chikage sort through them and share what he wants.)

For the first year, Chikage doesn’t exist in Itaru’s mind. They brush shoulders in the walkway sometimes or take the elevator together, but Itaru can’t even recall his name from the meeting or what department he works in. All their interactions begin and end with a succinct nod, and then they’re on their way before they happen to coexist again.

Their story, as comical as it may be, starts with a broken vending machine and four dollars worth of shitty granola bars. (In ten years, Itaru will cry at their wedding when Chikage mentions that he had always imagined their kisses to taste like strawberry granola, and Itaru will get him back by saying that their first kiss actually tasted like sub-par curry from a roadside booth a few blocks from Mankai. They’ll both pretend in the moment that they don’t feel nostalgic, and when they find themselves in bed later that evening Chikage will comment about his breath smelling too much like overpriced champagne.)

It only takes a few bangs of Chikage’s arm against the side to get the machine to reluctantly release its grasp on Itaru’s lunch, and at that point Itaru decides that this man is a cheater. (Itaru doesn’t meet Banri until almost a year later, but he definitely still finds himself thinking that Chikage is playing on super ultra easy mode.) The vending machine still doesn’t seem to be working correctly, judging by the dark interior and the slightly dented shelving, but Itaru has three more granola bars than he expected and a slightly irritated senior on his heels.

(One of these things will last for no more than five minutes. One of them will be the best thing to ever happen to him.)

(Itaru hasn’t had a granola bar in years.)

The vending machine is replaced a few weeks later, and Itaru starts seeing Chikage more and more. He doesn’t know much about him besides the fact that they definitely work on different floors and that he knows how to override a broken vending machine, but the tangible tension surrounding him makes him seem much more compelling. Itaru’s never been too keen on sticking himself into other peoples’ business, but if Chikage decides that a few granola bars obligate Itaru to participate in small talk, Itaru has the right to speculate about his life. 

At this point in his life, Itaru now thinks about Chikage exclusively during the work day. They converse briefly by the coffee station every now and then, Itaru teasing Chikage for drinking his coffee black and then in turn grimacing while drinking any variation of coffee, tip toeing on the verge of the line between coworkers and acquaintances. (At every stage of their relationship, they’ve seemed to stay on the rift of something great for far too long.)

Their gradual descent into acquaintanceship hits its climax a month and a half before Itaru joins Mankai. It’s during an uninteresting interoffice project that he reluctantly agreed to, Chikage volunteering because... Itaru doesn’t know why, actually. He seems like the type of asshole to get told to stop volunteering in school. 

Chikage is actually unsurprisingly reliable and punctual, and if Itaru didn’t have some sort of reputation to maintain the last thing he’d do is kiss his ass like he’s doing. He doesn’t dislike Chikage, not by any means, but he practically reeks of “normie that would have made fun of him in high school”. So much for being intriguing. 

(Making that comparison alone kills Itaru’s interest in pursuing anything further than an acquaintance for a while.)

Yet somehow Chikage, as it turns out, ends up as the only one outside of Mankai who knows about his double life. ( _ And _ doesn’t make fun of him for it, most of the time.) Their journey to friendship starts around the time they first coexist together in room 103, Itaru doing his best to move all his junk over to his side of the room. Chikage just watches him scramble to scrounge for all the loose socks and wrappers on the floor, laughing to himself and electing not to help. Itaru pouts, (“Because you’re a brat,” Chikage will say far more times than necessary over the course of their relationship.) Their room ends up messy in a few days anyway, and Chikage is gone too much to care enough to lecture Itaru about it.

When Chikage starts consistently sleeping in the dorm is when Itaru starts to develop something like…  _ feelings _ for him. (Chikage, unromantic as ever, will start to realize that significantly further down the line. By that point, Itaru has already resigned himself to waiting forever.)

...

When Chikage turns twenty-six, he will expend approximately three years of his emotional energy trying to articulate Itaru’s importance to him. Itaru will shove his head into a pillow and pretend not to blush, and Chikage will tease him about being embarrassed like he isn’t half a second from losing his mind.

When Itaru turns twenty-four, he will gather all the confidence he’s skipped out on in the past decade to kiss Chikage under the stars. Chikage will laugh and brush Itaru’s hair out of his eyes, scold him for being so cheesy, and Itaru will run his thumb across the bottom of Chikage’s lip to shut him up. Itaru will look into Chikage’s eyes like he’s the world, and he’ll surrender himself to a lifetime of this.

When Chikage is twenty-six and Itaru is twenty-four, their life begins.


End file.
